Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of propulsion of watercraft and relates to a vessel propulsion system.
As in all technical fields, also the shipbuilding industry is making an effort to raise the efficiency of a vessel's propulsion system. In addition, especially for inland navigation, there is an increasing need to provide fast vessels that create the smallest possible waves at high speed. It has been demonstrated that waves beating against the shore banks not only impair the reinforcements along them, but also harm the biotopes located at the shore, and in particular disturb the hatching behaviour of birds in habitats nearby.
In addition, especially inland navigation faces the problem of having to avoid pollution caused by lubricants necessarily used for rotating parts of a vessel propulsion system, whereby such lubricants can be released into the water if these parts lie below the water surface during operation of the vessel propulsion system. Almost all known motor or engine driven vessel propulsion systems face this problem.